“Ran Mai Te Ruam” project expanded to promote waste reduction

Attended the press conference at Suralai Hall on the seventh storey of IconSiam shopping mall in Bangkok’s Khlong San district included Pichayapa Phrutthananont, Vice President of Merchant at LINE MAN Wongnai; Naratipe Ruttapradid, Chief Operating Officer of Siam Piwat; Anont Attawiboon, Operations Executive at IconSiam; executives of Khlong San District Office, representatives of network partners and relevant persons.

Pornphrom emphasised that trust is a key to encourage people on waste sorting, saying that Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) has implemented a strategy to sort waste in three sizes: small (S), medium (M) and large (L).

L-size waste comes from large shopping malls, office buildings, schools, temples and religious venues, which is divided into 22 sources, he explained, adding that District Offices are ready to provide knowledge and support waste sorting operations.

He asserted that BMA has achieved remarkable progress in sorting L-size waste. Noting that Bangkok’s waste sorting capacity was 1,100 tonnes a day in pre-Covid-19 pandemic, the capital now can reduce almost 2,000 tonnes of waste a day compared to waste generation of around 9,000 tonnes a day.

He explained that the “Ran Mai Te Ruam” project came as BMA faces a challenge in dealing with M-size waste which comes from food outlets outside shopping malls, saying that City Hall was forced to collect and dispose of waste in one place.

The project allows food outlet operators to voluntarily manage waste and inform their locations to District Offices to facilitate waste collection, he said. He added that LINE MAN Wongnai has supported tools for waste sorting, while the list of food outlets participated in the project is shown on the website https://greener.bangkok.go.th.

BMA aims to attract 2,500 food outlets to join the project, or 50 venues per district, he said. 

Pornphrom further explained that S-size waste comes from the people, which is the hardest part of waste sorting. 

Previously, BMA has called for people’s collaboration on waste sorting, but only some of them do so, he said, adding that the majority of people would not prefer waste sorting due to lack of confidence whether City Hall will actually sort waste before disposal.

To tackle this issue, BMA has launched a mechanism which encourages people to sort waste for waiving waste collection fees from 60 baht to 20 baht. Interested people can register for participating in the project through QR code, he said.

He added that BMA has a commitment to tackle waste issues by dispatching waste collection trucks to collect waste from homes three times a week, and supporting garbage bags. 

BMA would like to ask people to show their power in waste sorting to improve the city environment, because everyone can cooperate to change the city according to the slogan “The whole city can be changed starting with you,” he said.

Meanwhile, Naratipe said this collaboration between BMA and Siam Piwat reflects the company’s vision on promoting a circular economy to achieve “zero waste” goal. The company has enhanced the food waste separation project by expanding cooperation with more food outlets in shopping malls compared to the first phase, she said.

BMA has initiated the “Ran Mai Te Ruam” project to extend collaboration with food outlet operators to achieve tangible results on waste management.

The list of participating food outlet business operators is being published on the website https://greener.bangkok.go.th as a source of information for the public to choose and support operators who pay attention to the environment.

This move aims to collect data and forecast the amount of waste generated by food outlets each day, which will help design the most efficient waste collection routes. In addition, the obtained data can be used as a guideline for setting up environmental policies, while improving waste management budgets to ensure maximum benefits.

The Ran Mai Te Ruam project also complies with BMA’s new waste collection fee scheme, which will come into effect in October 2025. City Hall has set up fee rates based on types of garbage generators as follows:

• Group 1: Households with no more than 20 litres of waste a day or no more than four kilograms a day will be charged at 60 baht a month, which include a 30 baht of collection and transportation fee, and a 30 baht of disposal fee.
• Group 2: Restaurants and convenience stores with more than 20 litres of waste but no more than 1 cubic metre a day, or more than four kilograms but no more than 200 kilograms a day. They will be charged at 120 baht/20 litres, which include a 60 baht/20 litre collection and transportation fee, and a 60 baht/20 litre disposal fee.
• Group 3: Shopping malls, markets, hotels and businesses with more than 1 cubic metre of waste, more than 1,000 litres, or more than 200 kilograms a day. They will be charged at 8,000 baht/cubic metre, which include a 3,250 baht/cubic metre collection and transportation fee, and a 4,750 baht/cubic metre disposal fee.

BMA’s new waste collection fee scheme aims to encourage small and medium-sized food outlets to implement waste sorting correctly and systematically, so they can reduce waste disposal fee costs. Interested food outlets can join the project via https://greener.bangkok.go.th/ran-mai-te-ruam/